Prepolymers useful for the production of elastomers have been known for many years. However, the known and currently employed prepolymers suffer from many perceived disadvantages. For example, prepolymers formed from active hydrogen containing compounds particularly those having molecular weights of 2000 or more, often have relatively high viscosities which in turn result in inconsistent prepolymers from batch to batch. Further, because of the inconsistency in the resultant prepolymers, high scrap rates are common.
To employ prepolymers having a relatively high viscosity, the prepolymer compositions generally require heating to allow for material flow. However, heating causes degradation of the prepolymer leading to less effective elastomers.
Thus, there is a need for low viscosity prepolymers which are stable at room temperature and which can be utilized to form elastomers over a broad processing range. Additionally, there is a need for elastomers which can be processed at ambient temperatures as opposed to known elastomers wherein the isocyanate component has to be kept at higher than ambient temperatures in order to effectuate a complete reaction.